**
4 am was way too early, but it did leave the park completely empty. The Agency had been there long before they showed up, according to Clem, which wasn’t a surprise; they needed any advantage they could get. Hugo pulled into a parking spot and he and CJ climbed out of the car.
Clem was laughing in his head, They’ve got about thirty guys in the area, some a little over a mile away, and everyone has gas masks. Good Luck.
Great, thank, Hugo returned the amused sarcasm. Charles, a stout, middle-aged man with short-cropped brown hair and very hard gray eyes, was waiting for them in the middle of the park so that when they walked over to him, they were completely surrounded. Hugo thought he should probably be nervous, but he wasn’t; this would work or it wouldn’t.
Charles visibly tensed as they approached, a quick glance to CJ making it obvious who the man was more concerned about. Hugo didn’t blame them, they thought they knew what he could do, but it was hard to plan for CJ.
“Hey,” Hugo greeted the Agency member, a moment later surprised at how informal he’d been.
“You didn’t say you were bringing company,” Charles’ tone was the exact opposite.
Hugo shrugged, “Neither did you, but I don’t mind. This is CJ, I believe you refer to her as Subject 132.”
“You know, you could have just asked for my name, you guys. I totally would have told you,” CJ interjected.
“I see,” Charles replied dryly.
Well, you’re off to a good start, now he’s paranoid about the fact you know he’s got people hiding, all pointing their little dart guns at you, Clem still sounded mildly amused, but at the same time triggered the memory of his warning not to lead them all to their death just because he had no regard for his own life.
What was I supposed to do? I’m no good at this talking thing, with it, Hugo tried to convey the fact that he wasn’t trying to be careless.
Clem’s response was a dry amusement, Not go, I guess.
“So, you said you wanted to explain yourself?” Charles prompted when the conversation didn’t immediately progress any further.
Hugo took a deep breath, thankful that he’d had the foresight to at least work out that explanation ahead of time, “Yes. We were not informed of the entire situation before we went in. All we knew was that you guys were going after a little girl in Mr. Gideon’s custody, and we acted in the only way we could to prevent that. At the time we didn’t know who her father was, or that he’d hired you to get her. I’m assuming you haven’t talked to him since you made the arrangement?”
“No,” Charles answered, his voice sharp and wary, “Why do you ask?”
“He’s at Gideon Enterprises now. He attacked someone on the security team and they’re holding him.”
Charles didn’t say anything, but Clem was laughing a little, Now he’s thinking they exposed themselves for nothing. He’s really irritated, but not quite at you right now. Oh! He’s getting input from a controller named Scott a mile from here. I’d love to go see him.
Not now Clem, they might see you go over there.
Disappointment, Alright, alright, I’ll wait.
Charles struggled to keep his response as neutral as possible, and if Hugo hadn’t had Clem’s input already, he might have succeeded, “So now that you know the situation, are you going to give us the little girl?”
Hugo shook his head, “What would you do with her? We’re working on getting her father visiting rights, but you know he wasn’t a good father, that he used his own daughter to make money, he shouldn’t be allowed to have custody of her.”
Nice, he has kids and agrees with you. He didn’t like the decision to take the job in the first place.
“You still killed a lot of our men,” Charles announced flatly.
Hugo resisted the urge to stick his hands in his pockets; it would look really bad if he did it now, “And I’m sorry, but I was trying to protect Sarah. You guys did attack us first.”
There was a surprising lack of anger when Charles responded, “Were you the ones who released our men who survived?” Hugo nodded slightly. “Do you think you’re human?”
Hugo blinked a few times at the abruptness of the question.
“What, are you crazy? We’re not aliens or anything!” CJ exclaimed, throwing her arms up in the air. The sudden movement made Charles jump a little, but when she didn’t immediately follow it up with anything more threatening than letting them fall back to her sides, he moved his hand away from his gun.
Hugo gave a slight nod to CJ. “She’s right, we’re definitely human. We make the same mistakes.”
Hugo was a little surprised to feel a contemplative tone when Clem interjected, You’ll be interested to know they’ve met powered people who don’t agree with you. They think they’re better than human.
Oh great, that’s just perfect. Why are some people so crazy?
For a fleeting moment Hugo felt Clem’s irritation, an accusation that he was being too judgmental, but it dropped to mild disinterest immediately after, It’s not a completely invalid argument. We can definitely do things that normal people can’t, and if it’s a really long time before you meet anyone else with abilities, it’s easy to get the impression you’re special, you’re the only one, and wouldn’t that make you something other than human?
I do not need to hear this argument from you.
“So what do we do now?” Charles asked. It was a good question.
“We really do have similar goals, our methods are just different. There are even some of us that don’t trust Mr. Gideon either. I think for now, if we can agree on it, we just stay out of each other’s way. You leave us alone, and we’ll leave you alone.” There was a long pause that CJ filled with fidgeting, and Hugo assumed Charles was getting instructions from his controller, but Clem didn’t offer any confirmation.
“Ok. You leave us alone, we’ll leave you alone,” Charles said carefully after the delay.
Hugo nodded, trying to hide the small smile, “Ok. Would you like us to leave first?”
“If you wouldn’t mind,” Charles responded, his tone almost relaxed.
Hugo nodded, “Thanks Charles,” and then he started walking. CJ trailed after him. Are they going to attack us, Clem?
Nope, they don’t want to get their asses kicked. I think they understand if they went after you now, they’d screw themselves over. You are a potential ally, even if that guy hates people with abilities. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a Scott to meet. Don’t wait up!
Clem wait! Hugo was answered by silence.
When they finally got back to Gideon Enterprises, the several cups of coffee were no longer working. Hugo dragged himself into the building, he wanted to just lie down and sleep, but he had a few things to take care of first. He tried to find the doctor to let her know how the meeting went, but the skittish technician he spoke to told him she was with Mr. Gideon. Crysta’s unfortunate meeting with Charon, the vision he’d had when he first met her, suddenly came to mind and he called her. It went to voicemail. His heart was racing. He sent her a text asking her if she was alright.
Several agonizing moments later he got a response, ‘I’m fine. I’m helping Mr. Gideon, Mr. Hansen is with me. We’ll talk later. The meeting went fine?’
Hugo let out the breath he’d been holding, ‘Just fine. See you.’ That was too much. He really needed to sleep. He found one of the side rooms that wasn’t being used and crashed.
The Sound of Wind Page 75
